DC : Let me ask you some racing questions. Having driven for Corvette and Aston Martin, what are their respective strengths and weaknesses, and what do you have to alter when switching from one car to the other?
FR: They're very different cars to drive. The Corvette was always very difficult to drive through they can be equally fast. It takes a lot of effort to drive, it's a very nervous car. It's like a beast you're trying to control all the time as it wants to run away.
The Aston is more comfortable, it's more forgiving, when you go over the limit. In terms of driving style, we're always adapting in this kind of race; wet track, dry track, different drivers sharing the same car, we don't have the ideal setup between the 3 of us. When you talk about Endurance racing, you're not adjusting the car to fit you, all things are changing all around and you have to adapt to it at every moment. Adapting from one car to the other is just a natural part of endurance racing.
DC: How was it, turning intof turn 19 and up to turn 20, when the sun was starting to set?
FR: For a brief moment, you don't see anything. You have an idea of how things are because of lateral G-forces and how fast you're going. It's tricky, in the race tomorrow we'll go through a couple of laps in that situation. This is how it is in Endurance racing, in Le Mans we have the same. it takes 5-6 laps until the sun drops to a point where it doesn't bother you anymore.
DC: It's a big, flat piece of property here - I noticed that when you come off of 19, it goes uphill towards 20 then goes into the straight. You finished around 15 minutes before the sun sets, you guys didn't really get to qualify during that time.
FR: The sun was setting just after qualifying. Tomorrow I'll start the race at 5, then I'll hand the car over to my teammate around just as the sun is setting. He'll get it right at the worst moment. The transition between day to night is critical. Your vision must adapt as well. It's difficult. When it's full day or full night, it's easier, you can do things in the garage to prepare yourself better. But it's like driving on the highway, there's a moment where you lose a bit of notion of distance, that's a critical moment in the race, the team must come on the radio and say, hey, take care!
DC: So it's a combination of radio, feeling the G-forces and knowledge of that part of the track?
FR: You're kind of blinded and you lost a bit of sense of how things are. But when you're going, those speeds are very quick.
DC: But that's one of the major selling points of this weekend (day-to-night endurance racing)
FR: It will be interesting for sure. It will be nice to start the race in full day, then transition to full night, so we have all these possibilities there and maybe some rain as well.
DC: Have you raced in worse conditions? Storms, humidity?
FR: In fact, yesterday, when the session began, that was nearly the worst that I ever tried. There was a lot of water on the track. We were stuck for an hour with no cars on the track. The flood of water started to build up in many places without race cars passing by to clear it.
You could hardly see with the reflections of the cars; the lights; all the water on the ground, it was really really difficult. Hopefully tomorrow when it rains, it rains when skies are clear and we have some sun, otherwise it will be tricky.
E-Racing would like to thank Fernando Rees and Aston Martin Racing for their time and access during the Austin weekend.